


Just A Fairy Tale

by sparrowinsky



Category: 10th Kingdom
Genre: F/M, Gen, adventures through time and space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 20:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2824796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrowinsky/pseuds/sparrowinsky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wolf: I picked up your trail a few days ago.<br/>Virginia: But how? We went through a mountain.<br/>Wolf: Virginia, I could follow your scent across time itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just A Fairy Tale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [u_ne_korn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/u_ne_korn/gifts).



**1**

Wolves, on occasion, are known to exaggerate the truth.

Just a little! Hardly at all! It’s not a lie. Wolf can smell her miles away, can trace Virginia’s scent through trails she left months ago, can follow her footsteps as easily as tumbling a shepherdess.

How was he to know she’d take it literally? That is to say, exactly literally, assuming the meaning quite how it sounded which is, really, not precisely how he’d meant it. It was more… affectionate hyperbole.

And really, who jumps in front of a curse?

 

**2**

It wasn’t his fault. It absolutely was not. But did that matter? His lovely love was as fierce as a she-wolf only maybe a little less discriminating in her ferocity-- and he was going to die. As soon as he found her. In fact, the plan might need some alteration. A distraction. Something to make her so happy (when he finds her) that she doesn’t think about how much trouble he’s caused.

He thinks (briefly) of romance, then gives himself a good shake; no sense repeating past mistakes, although really, she should appreciate a romantic dinner, he’d gone to a lot of trouble—

 

**3**

Really, the point is, people in the 10th Kingdom are ridiculously lackadaisical with their magic.

No one in the Nine Kingdoms would have left something like that unattended. At the very minimum, some security, some fellows dressed up in fancy uniforms with gold braid, a curse on the threshold, something.

And then after all the fuss it turns out the man isn’t a wizard after all.

Jeez, all Wolf was going for was a little help and the guy practically bites his head off.

Though… it really is an awfully big hole.

Nope, Virginia’s definitely going to kill him.

 

 

**4**

He thinks (even more briefly) of heading back for Tony. It’d be a perfect distraction, the only person in the whole history of the universe more likely to take the brunt of her ire, but the thought of Tony traipsing across time is terrifying.

Wolf’s doing enough damage himself.

Oh, Virginia’s gonna be furious, but it’s not his fault.

Really, it’s her fault. She should know better than to get between people flinging magic at each other.

She could have at least had the good taste to get flung through time in the Nine Kingdoms, where things make sense.

 

**5**

The trail goes cold about the time castles start showing up.

The trail goes cold, and so does Wolf.

In fact, he panics.

It’s no excuse for his behavior, and he didn’t mean to start witch hunt.

Sometimes, a Wolf’s gotta get his blood running to get his brain thinking, that’s all.

And maybe it’s a bit to do with the way this century looks like home. Well, a dirtier version of home speaking a language he doesn’t understand. He just feels the need to get out and howl a bit, so to speak.

Stupid Wolf, not paying attention.

 

**6**

It’s unforgivable. Weeks of a cold trail. If he’d been paying attention he’d have figured out what she did the moment he got here.

Clever Virginia. Give that girl an inch and she’ll figure out how to turn your fancy mirror into an inter-dimensional portal.

Clever and dangerous girl. It makes Wolf grin with pride. Makes his blood run a little hot, too, but he won’t mention it until he’s got her home alone and made sure she’s all right and the baby too, and then gone back and ripped to shreds anyone who looked at her wrong.

 

 

**7**

What’s bugging him is how the mirror got across in the first place.

Maybe it’s all that adventuring with Tony and Virginia and Prince Puppy that has his alarms tingling.

Of course, a more observant wolf might have noticed the evil queen straight off, but cut a guy some slack, he’s been worried crazy, and tracking is pretty hard work, especially backwards through multiple kingdoms in different dimensions.

A guy’s gotta stop and smell the mutton now and again, is the thing. Or eat it, as the case may be.

So being blindsided by a magic spell… forgivable, right?

**8**

Ok, so she rescues him.

A lesser man might take it as a blow to his pride. Wolf, he just gives her his best, happiest grin, which is surely nearly as charming upside down as right-side up.

Well, judging by the crossed arms and raised eyebrow, maybe not.

“What happened to ‘across time itself,’ huh?”

Wolf shrugs, or does the best imitation he can, because shrugging is really a right-side up activity.

“Lost you through the mirror. Oh, let me down, pretty please.”

“I should just let you hang there,” she says, but she’s smiling, and does.

 

**9**

It takes a while to get the mirror going. Clever his Virginia may be, but a makeshift inter-dimensional mirror is still, here’s the important part, makeshift.

And Wolf could make some suggestions, being maybe a little more experienced in the realm of magic, but hey, who’s going to argue with an evil-queen-killing, Wolf-in-distress-rescuing princess like his? Especially (he will never say it out loud, because even he is not that oblivious, he’s got some paw in mouth moments but he’s not Tony for goodness’ sake) when she’s practically bursting at the maternal seams.

 

**10**

Of course, when they do get back across, it turns out Virginia’s made as big a mess of his history as he did hers.

It gets him three solid days of teasing, that is, before he lets it slip about the crazy man who’s magic machine Wolf probably shouldn’t have touched.

He expects her to be mad, but Virginia just laughs and gives him a 10th Kingdom history lesson.

He’s indignant for an hour or two, but it’s another week before the spell’s ready to send them all the way home, and there’s things he’d rather do with it.

**Forever After**

There’s a story in the Nine Kingdoms about this wolf, who followed his mate through time. Nobody believes it. Where’d he get the magic? And everybody knows, wolves are too impetuous. The poor guy would have blown something up, probably.

Everybody agrees it’s just a story, one of those ones made up with a moral to it, or it would be if anybody could agree on what the point was supposed to be.

Even if it could be true, who would love somebody so much they’d follow a trail through time and space?

Yeah. It’s just a fairy tale.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide!
> 
> (Points to anybody who figures out what Wolf did.)


End file.
